Though he would later influence legions of young television watchers with his creation of such Saturday morning cartoon heroes as Space Ghost, the Super Friends, the Herculoids, and Birdman, Alex Toth is known to the comic book world for his superbly stripped-down, action-oriented art style. He began his career in 1945 at the age of 15 for Heroic Comics, advancing to superhero work for DC. By 1952 he had become a freelance cartoonist, and much of his work was for Standard Comics, where the fruition of his style created an entire school of imitators. This beautifully printed retrospective collects the 62 stories—nearly 400 pages, and most in color—that Toth produced for Standard, including crime, horror, romance, science fiction, and war stories.

"Greg Sadowski and Fantagraphics' Setting the Standard is perhaps the best book on Alex Toth that has been published thus far.... The book's assemblage and design are very well done to make a package which is pulpy but tasteful, not cheap nor overly slick.... It provides a complete and important body of work by a great cartoonist."—James Romberger

"If you've ever wanted to see what the 'big deal' is with Alex Toth, I can think of absolutely no better place to start. There's no better bang for your buck this year than Setting the Standard."—Alonso Nunez